2022-23: Up close, at a distance

Tutors: Farlie Reynolds and Greg Storrar

‘The thing about tourism is that the reality of a place is quite different from the mythology of it.’

– Martin Parr

With the escalation of the climate crisis, the question of what might curb the unstoppable growth of global travel emerged. Then came the pandemic; physically too far, digitally too close. We must ask ourselves how much travel was ever really needed, and consider the different experiences we might construct now we are able to travel again.

Are we destined for Surrogate Tourism, simulated travels to another place (or time)? Or might we creatively rethink Destination Tourism, conjuring sustainable experiences capable of drawing footfall away from ravaged historical sites and sublime landscapes? Or are consumerist models of travel altogether inappropriate in an age of climate catastrophe; should we embrace Slow Tourism, a return to the nomadic?

These ideas pose provocative questions of architecture, of its identity, authenticity, permanence and mobility, of the provenance of materials and the skills and people that make it. This is where we will begin.

The Maréorama

Navigating the waters of the Mediterranean, a ship sails from Côte d’Azur to the exotic Tunisian shore, then onwards to Naples, Venice, destination Constantinople. A volley of cannon shots announce arrival into port under the burning midday sun. The journey has been dramatic, witness to unsettling plumes of smoke rising from Vesuvius, seasickness-inducing violent night storms, attack by Barbarian pirates, and the beauty of the gondola-laden Venetian lagoon.

The Maréorama, remarkably, never actually left port, nor was in fact even a ship. Built for the 1900 World Fair in Paris, it was a pseudo architecture of pivots, pistons, a kilometre of rolling painted canvas and all manner of illusory props animated by stage hands, actors and orchestra. The purpose? To offer everyday folk the much-coveted experience of travel, otherwise only attainable by the wealthiest of society.

Travel, a brief history

Odysseus, one of the earliest literary travellers, embarked on much of the Maréorama journey in reverse. Rewinding further, we were all travellers: nomadic farming by its very nature a seasonal exploration. We slowly settled, built towns and grew roots. In the Middle Ages the rise of pilgrimage marked the advent of tourism and evolved into the Grand Tour, the famed aristocratic love-in of European classical antiquity sites that educated the likes of Inigo Jones and John Soane. Travel takes many guises, its escapist allure ubiquitous and unwavering.

In the 1970s the phenomena of mass tourism coincided with a new environmental awareness. Negative impacts began to be understood: carbon footprints, lost cultural heritage, habitat degradation, exploitation and displacement of communities. With the escalation of the climate crisis, the question of what might curb the unstoppable growth of global travel emerged. Then came the pandemic; physically too far, digitally too close. In the 50 years between, tourist numbers octupled to a staggering 1.5 billion. The UN states the impact of the pandemic as an opportunity for the tourist industry to ‘build back better’. This year UG8 will ask ourselves how much travel was ever really needed, and consider the different experiences we might construct now we are able to travel again.

Where do we go from here?

Are we destined for Surrogate Tourism, simulated travels to another place (or time)? A degree of artifice perhaps unpalatable, though not unimaginable: consider the popularity of the Maréorama, Disneyland and working from home, coupled with the potentials of new virtual, augmented and mixed realities. Or might we creatively rethink Destination Tourism, conjuring sustainable experiences capable of drawing footfall away from ravaged historical sites and sublime landscapes? Or are consumerist models of travel altogether inappropriate in an age of climate catastrophe; should we embrace Slow Tourism, a return to the nomadic?

These ideas pose provocative questions of architecture, of its identity, authenticity, permanence and mobility, of the provenance of materials and the skills and people that make it. We will explore the architecture of sightseeing and sightmaking, re-imagining the experiences of tomorrow’s tourist. The creative experiments of others will guide us, like D’Alesi’s Maréorama, Pichler’s small room prototype, Bakel’s slow-travelling Tarim Machine, the perpetual de/reconstruction of the Ise Jingu shrine, and raising the entire city of Chicago block-by-block. We too will treat our design process as a journey not a destination, see-sawing between analogue and digital, remote and real, technical and psychological, intuition and precision.

On Tour

Travelling from Vesuvius to Venice, this year’s field trip will connect two ports on the Maréorama’s voyage. On our journey we will venture between lesser-known experimental architectures and major cultural landmarks, finding sites for the building project along the way. We will study Borromini’s illusory geometries, Michelucci’s sculptural concrete churches, Eni’s modernist mountain resort, and explore the ruins of Casa Sperimentale, the lost city of Pompeii, and the vast marble quarries of Carrara. We will learn from the craftsmanship of Scarpa’s Castelvecchio, Brion Cemetery, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, and turn our hand to the traditional Venetian glass-making techniques which inspired him.

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